Re: Oost

zombies, orcs, a wolf...and death

Our adventurers were right. They were close to escaping the town – but there was a challenge yet to be faced. A corporeal corpse and its minions stood in their way, and they fought admirably. The victory of our adventurers, however, was not so sweet, as they had discovered that what they had defeated was once a priest who sought to lift the curse of the town. What was left of the man’s self was inked on paper; the man spoke of his mission, his failures, and the only solution he could think of. They used the information they gathered from the papers to escape the town unharmed…seeing another group of adventurers about to suffer the same ordeal they had suffered.

After this, our adventurers traveled together for a while yet, until they came upon a town that wished to employ their talents – Orcs, so they say, were threatening their way of life. After a bit of negotiation (which involved promises of land, treasures, and the like), the party agreed to rid the town of these orcs.

Finding the orcs had not been difficult. Fighting them at the beginning was also not quite so difficult. But as they moved deeper into the lair, the strain finally gets the better of them. The Tiefling Eurynomous Etain dies protecting the ranger Jade Marinaris; in shock and despair, the rest of the adventurers almost failed to fulfill their objective.

The last words of their final opponent before she had thrown herself into the fire, however, served to unnerve them even more. “You come into my home, kill my guests, kill my dog, kill my husband and destroy my house. Damn you. Damn you all.”

Echoing in their minds as they lifted the lifeless body of their companion Nom was a scream. “Who are the monsters Now?”

of extraplanar wizards, jelly, and clay...

After a deserved rest at the belfry, and raiding the floors for usable rations, the “tourists” make their way into the tunnels below the bell tower.

Below they ran into, and rescue, a wayward wizard from a large group of undead. The Wizard claims to have come here from a plane different from this one, using “his Plane.” The arcanists in the group are confounded by his explanations. They trust that in time he will make sense. Needing all the help they could get, they let him come along. That’s when they encountered an Ochre Jelly.

None of them wish to recall the squishy, green horror. (Don’t ask.)

As predicted the Wizard’s help came in handy later on as exploration of the tunnels led the group to a portcullis that revealed a room populated by a swarm of dog-sized rats – it was the Wizard volunteered to open the gate. His bravado was useful; and the rats were obviously hungry.

Eventually they manage to scare the rats away using arcane fire, eldritch and holy energies, and good old fashioned violence.

Eventually they manage to exit the underground passages and enter into an area that resembles the surface town. Looking for an escape route they come across what seems to be a house with an arcane gateway. Fortunate for them, it turned out that the warlord Elora had the requisite key with her the whole time.

They explore the area inside further and come across some barrels. They were hoping to find some loot; instead they were surprised to find Cro hiding in one of the larger barrels.

Apparently, during their attempt to break into the bell tower, they didn’t realize that Cro managed to slip away and explore on his own. Being mute, Cro had a difficult time trying to explain his current defensive placement.

Frustrated with situation, Jade decided to move ahead and scout the other levels of the area. This was when some mechanized magical clay sentinels charged at the party, exiting from the other barrels in the area. It was presumed that this was for intruding, but after surviving hordes of zombies and several larger than normal animals, the tourists don’t really care at this point. Survival and escape are their only priorities.

After a bloody fight, the clay guardians were defeated. Tired, the survivors decided to rest a bit, and collect themselves.

Once again, it is proven: zombies make everything better.

After being expelled from her current town of residence for happening to own the shop in which a Dark One from the Abyss was summoned, Alyinka Thalma agreed to meet with the tiefling Nom Etain and her tracker/bodyguard, Jade Marinaris in some other distant town up north.

The adventure begins, when Nom – who happens to owe Alyinka a lot of money – and his jailer/keeper Jade arrived in the agreed upon town only to find that Alyinka is nowhere to be seen. Sensing an opportunity to either ditch Jade, or hustle for more money, Nom decides to attempt a classic “tour guide” con on a nearby tourist.

The tourist in this case is a rich Eladrin called Arkeimystos Shalcaidh, and his guard, an ex-army officer named Elora Sunhaven.

Bickering transpired.

Unbeknownst to all of them, they were being observed by Cro, a Blade hired by Alyinka, here to collect on Nom’s debt. Cro managed to find an optimal perch on a rooftop near the arguing individuals.

As the bickering continued, a vagrant named Farnam attempted to warn them that this isn’t the best town for tourists to wander about. Farnam ended up with an arrow in his side for his troubles. The local pie-lady in the crowd near our party turned out to be an assassin that didn’t want spitting vagrants to talk too much.

While Jade attempted to confront the pie-lady for the evil she has done, the bells in the tower at the center of the beautiful normal town rang twice. Daytime instantly became dusk, the exits from the place became chasms of doom. The abnormally normal people of this unreasonably normal, perfectly beautiful town, transmuted into the undead. Yes, even the pie-lady assassin.

Swords were drawn and used, undead bodies were hit with war-hammers and eldritch energies, and a hired Blade and his pride slipped off roofing tiles.

It was bloody. It was fun. Zombies always make everything better. Violence is no exception.

After the battle, it was concluded that the party head towards the bell tower, the assumed source of this corruption, and find a way to escape this now-rotting-town.
After several fights with more undead, and their dogs, the tourists were eventually able to discover Alyinka hidden away in locked chest. Apparently her urgent need to clean the inside of the said chest in the name of her god, Laundromat, got the best of her.

Later on in the culvert leading into the tower, during a scuffle with even more zombies, the group of tourists ran into an otherworldly elf named Pol. Apparently, by sheer bad luck, the elf was magically sent to this rotting, zombie-infested town.

It is amusing to note that Pol doesn’t perceive his current predicament in the same manner. Pol claims he was sent here in accordance with his culture’s rites of passage, wherein a magical portcullis sends the willing participants to other worlds, where they will supposedly fulfill their “greater destiny.”

After a minor encounter with a faulty trapped door at the end of the culvert, an obligatory raid of the tower’s many rooms for necessary items that could be used for survival, and a major skirmish with two beastly spiders and a fat zombified man-thing, the desperate tourists reached the tower’s belfry.

Curiosity over the belfry’s furniture arrangement and random items led to an epic battle with six man-sized bats that seem to have called the belfry home. Bats don’t like the sound of falling skulls, so it seems. To say that the tourists were clearly outmatched, is an understatement. It was beating; grand and horrific all at the same time.

By the grace of Laundromat, and the combat prowess of Elora, Arki, and the otherworldly elf, the tourists bested the bats, much to their relief. Desperation brings about miracles, or so they say.

Further investigation of the upper areas of the tower revealed a note from the schemers responsible for the town’s current state. It foreshadowed terror and coming darkness that will soon spread across the lands, but that really didn’t matter to the tourists. All they cared about was the part of the note that said there are escape tunnels out of the town, and they originate from the dark, dangerous, and still unexplored dungeons of the tower.

They have a note, and they know where to go. All they need to do now is survive.